Page:Excavations at the Kesslerloch.djvu/68

Rh ornaments of this nature. For these reasons the lake-dwellings are not to be placed in the same age as the human abodes found in caves. Consequently the era of the cave-dwellers forms the background in the picture of prehistoric man.

If we compare with our specimens those found in the inhabited caves of other districts, as, for instance, the cave at Salève, at the opposite end of Switzerland, or the Belgian, French, and Swabian caves, we again find so much agreement, so much that is similar, that involuntarily we are led to the conclusion that the human race at that time in Switzerland, in Belgium, France, Swabia, England, and other countries had arrived pretty much at the same degree of civilisation, had felt the same needs, and in general existed under the same conditions of life. Probably the objects found in our cave have the greatest similarity with those of the various caves of Périgord and Dordogne. A comparison with the specimens from the French and Belgian caves has convinced me that our cave at Kesslerloch, though not very large, has yielded results which indisputably, both in quantity and quality, are of the richest and most interesting nature. Only two similar 'finds' have been discovered of late years in Switzerland, viz. that at Veyrier on the Salève, and that at Villeneuve. The cave at Veyrier was examined in 1834, and that at Villeneuve in 1870. Still more lately, in the neighbouring district of Freudenthal, a cave has been excavated by Professor Karsten and President Joos of Schaffhausen, and the specimens found here, though not numerous, are of a highly interesting character. In another cave at Dachsenbuel, about a quarter of an hour's walk west of Herblingen, Dr. Von Mandach found a number of portions of human skeletons, some flint-flakes, a neck-ornament, and a bone implement, together with a good deal of pottery. It is therefore certain that the whole of this district was iii early times the theatre of human activity.

If we now return to the consideration of the cave-dwellers of our Kesslerloch, and picture to our imagination for a few moments their life and occupation, a very peculiar idea strikes our mind. The life led by man in those far distant times was in many respects very little better than that of the beasts which he hunted. It was in the fullest sense of the words a constant struggle for existence. It is very evident that caves were selected by him as places of refuge and habitation. He did not at that time understand how to build huts to protect him, nor had he, in fact, the tools necessary for this purpose. A cave,